Yeah, I hear ya about Benny. My uneducated guess would be he just doesn’t take his career as seriously as most guys on the team.

We all know the talent is there, but if you don’t work out at a pro level, eat right and make your career your one-and-only priority, you won’t cut it.

And the evidence is there for everyone to see. Falls on his face whenever someone leans on him and takes stupid penalties on the backcheck. Weak. Weak.

Contrast that with his twin on the ice (at least until they start playing) Max Pac. Many times during the season, commentators from visiting teams confused the two – and on the surface they look about the same. Two big guys who can skate with a 7 on their back. But the difference is, Max Pac is a pro. He’s training like a pro and his game is evolving like one would expect.

We’ve been waiting a while for Yemelin. Should be interesting to see what we actually get if he does come. I would expect the Habs to show the same kind of patience with him as they did with Eller. If you believe in the kid, you just need to persevere.

Who knows, maybe the time spent away from the big show allowed the kid to mature – unlike say a Benoit Pouliot who still hasn’t clued in.

I don’t see why we should get rid of Pouliot, a 24 year old listed at 6’3 200 pounds. We’re crying for size but we’re ready to give up on Pouliot who scored 17 goals last year and 13 this season without top minutes. He’s a project who, with a good training this summer could be a 20 goal scorer for us in the future. He can also take care of himself.

I won’t trot out my usual defence of Benny. Suffice it to say that the coach and many fans on HIO need to have someone to beat up on and Benny is this year’s guy. (Let’s not forget that the same coach and fans banished Max P to Hamilton last year after playing with the big team complaining that he was yet another draft bust.)

It wasn’t so bad when AK and Benny were sharing the dog house, but once AK emerged, his attributes i.e., “lazy”, “soft between the ears”, got attributed to Benny. Not sure what evidence there is to the latter complaint.. He is also said to play physically soft (I think that used to be the rap on SK and Dags), which, based on Pouliot’s hits (#3 on the team) and fights (talk to Boston) has no credence

A big problem with Benny is he falls down a lot, and often in a spectacular eye-catching fashion. Meanwhile his stats are pretty good, although his play tailed off at the end of the season, which may speak to his frustration about how he has been handled by the coaching staff.

He’s big, good skater (once his balance gets sorted out), great passer, 102 mph slap shot, can dangle, has a bit of a mean streak, francophone…. but takes some bad penalties (altho no more than PK or Eller, for example). What’s not to like? JM might have the answer to that one. Meanwhile, I suspect that Boucher would take Benny in a heartbeat.

I find it funny how everytime any ex-hab scores for another team, people try to spin it like it’s this big loss to Montreal, and all the fans should be upset we let the goal scorer go(whoever it may be).

But then as the goal scorers start choking when it matters(see Kostitsyn, Sergei) we don’t hear about them anymore.

And I’m not even referring to JT’s write up in particular… just in general on this site.

I wonder if you are just another in the line of so-called fans that cannot accept any player having a bad year. Every player goes through it during a long career, so get over it.
I have the feeling he will be much better this upcoming season.

There´s really no need to discuss Gomez everyday but if you really think he just had a bad year you´ll be very disappointed if he stays in Montreal (I hope he doesn´t). His production has been declining for years and there´s no reason to believe he´ll score more than 10 goals, 40 points, 45 points max again.

Gomez is not going anywhere. If the Habs demote him to Hamilton, that will cut Gauthier’s throat when it comes to trying to sign free agents. Believing he was the be all and end all of the Habs problems is naive. A playmaker need goalscorers to play with and this season Gionta and MaxPac did not do the job adequately. Gionta, because he was having a bad year, too, and MaxPac because he got his neck broken just as he was blossoming.

Declining for years? Before this season, his production had been around the same for four seasons. Goals ranged from 12-16, assists 42-54, and points 58-70. That’s really consistent production.

There is every reason to believe there is a chance that Gomez can return to his four seasons of an established norm (maybe he won’t, no one knows, yet). You’ve heard of outliners, right? Brad Richards had three seasons in between his 90-point seasons, in each of those years he averaged less than a point a game. Players have up and down years.